CHAPTER I.

Autumn in the New Forest--Red colour in mammals--November mildness--A house by the Boldre--An ideal spot for small birds--Abundance of nests--Small mammals and the weasel's part--Voles and mice--Hornet and bank-vole--Young shrews--A squirrel's visit--Green woodpecker's drumming-tree--Drumming of other species--Beauty of great spotted woodpecker--The cuckoo controversy--A cuckoo in a robin's nest--Behaviour of the cuckoo--Extreme irritability--Manner of ejecting eggs and birds from the nest--Loss of irritability--Insensibility of the parent robins--Discourse on mistaken kindness, pain and death in nature, the annual destruction of bird life, and the young cuckoo's instinct.